


The Master Sword: a scene

by DrSteggy



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: AU, Gen, Link is older, Master Sword, No Plot/Plotless, because omg why would you do this to kids, experimenting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-08
Updated: 2019-11-08
Packaged: 2021-01-25 08:07:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21352957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DrSteggy/pseuds/DrSteggy
Summary: No specific game, not sure where this sits on the timeline, but here’s an early 40s Link about to get his world entirely changed.Please consider checking out Uneasy Lies the Chosen of Farore, this is an early draft of its first chapter and I probably should have been patient.
Kudos: 4





	The Master Sword: a scene

It sounds so easy. The sword knows what it wants, and when that person wraps a hand around the hilt, it slides out of the pedestal, and there’s a minute where all is right. More than that. It’s a moment where you touch something sacred. 

No one currently living has ever actually seen this, of course. There were theories that the odd sword in the stone maybe was just a trick, and it wasn’t possible for it to come out. It had never so much as wiggled in living memory. It certainly hasn’t budged when he was sixteen and reached to touch it the first time he’d seen it. He remembered the hope he’d felt, the but what if, and then he touched the cobalt blue hilt, wrapped his fingers around it and pulled...and nothing. It may as well have been part of the Stone. 

Nothing. Not the chosen hero, but neither was anyone else in that group. Or any group after that in the 26 years since. No one really thought there would be one, it was just a story, right?

Two days ago everything was normal. The day was sunny, but not too warm, and the view on the plateau is amazing as always. He had been a teenager the first time he had been here, his entire life before him. Things had not gone exactly as he might have planned then, but overall, it hadn’t been bad. He had been a soldier in a time of peace and that was just fine. He’d seen places in Hyrule he would not have otherwise. The past few years he’d been called back to central Hyrule to over see training young recruits and that was fine, too. 

It had been a good life and maybe when he retired he’d go back to that fishing village on the beach and maybe, if she was still around and interested, he’d court up that girl, seriously this time, though he guessed she would be a woman, and old one, by then. That would be ok. More than ok. 

Two days ago, he’d been on his third or fourth trip to the Temple of Time with a bunch of kids rounded up from various villages to go see this sword in the pedestal. This trip was voluntary, but what kid doesn’t secretly think they might be some hero of legend? So, they took any that wanted to come, mostly boys, but a few girls the past few years too. It was pretty much a vacation, spend a few days on the road, go see some gorgeous scenery, watch children make new friends and go back home with a story to tell.

And did they have a story this year. 

The night before, they had camped outside the Temple. Link, and Kota maybe a dozen kids. There had been stories around the campfire, and probably too much horsing around late into the night, but it was fine, the stakes the next day were not particularly high, after all. 

He woke up with a headache, a buzzing that rattled his entire skull. The light was a little too bright and everyone was a little too loud, and, sure, they had been passing around some wine last night, but he certainly didn’t have that much and anyway, this wasn’t really like a hangover in the first place. It was...different. He toughed it out through breakfast and breaking camp and he hung back a little as they approached the Temple because he felt like whatever was going on inside his head got a tiny bit...worse? More intense? As he got closer. 

He herded stragglers through the doors and then stepped through and heard a whisper at his left ear that stopped him in his tracks so quickly, Kota noticed, stopped his spiel and asked if he was ok. He gave his head a quick, painful shake, and held up a hand, silently asking for a moment. And he listened. 

oh you’re finally here  
its time  
it’s finally Time

The sword rests at center of the Temple of Time, in a triangle shaped pedestal. The stained glass windows show images of past heroes wielding that sword. Those stories are mostly just things people tell each other to pass time, now. They weren’t ever real, anyway, right? Some of the images are insane to look at and anyway, no creature like that could have existed and if it did, one man with a sword was probably going to be lunch. 

Right?

“LINK.”

He turns to the pedestal, suspecting that wasn’t the first time his name had been called. The sword looks different this year. It sparkles, it’s bathed in gold light that doesn’t seem to have an obvious source and oh his head. Maybe he is having a stroke. 

No one else seems to see anything odd, though the kids have all quieted down and are now gazing upon the sword in its block with anticipation and excitement. 

i am so happy to see you again master it has been too long

“Link, are you ok?” Real concern this time.

“I’m fine, let’s get this started.” 

“You show them how this works, so you can get this started.”

All those young faces turn to him and he straightens up, gives his head another quick shake and steps to the pedestal. The buzz in his head almost turns anticipatory, almost like the feeling you get reaching to an intimate partner, it’s almost like that, but not quite. He stands before the sword, not for the first time but it’s never been like this and for a second, there’s a flash of fear of what will happen when he takes the hilt. 

Nothing is going to happen, nothing ever does. 

It’s a one handed sword, but he uses both palms to take and when he touches it, goddesses what have I done. 

His eyes are closed, but his vision is bathed in that gold light. The buzzing leaves his head, taking his breath with it. His gut drops and he feels like he is coming apart. He tightens his grip and there’s almost joy now in his head, but it doesn’t belong to him, he seems to be part of a reunion he knows nothing about. It’s been to long master it is good to see you again. He doesn’t know who is so pleased to see him again, but they are ever so happy he is back. The light intensifies and he pulls upward on the hilt

and it moves, just a little. Then a little more. Outside of him, he hears a collective gasp and remembers he isn’t in this place alone. It slides out of its home in the pedestal, and muscle memory he doesn’t know he has makes him flip the point of the blade skyward, still in his two hands. He brings the flat of the blade to his forehead, it’s a sacred moment, and he finally opens his eyes, catching their reflection in the metal.

Maybe his nose is bleeding now. He collapses. It sounds so easy.

**Author's Note:**

> BOTW was my first Zelda and I picked it up because I got a Switch and a friend thought I’d like the horses. I toured around the Great Plateau and was immediately hooked deep. I was also in a horrible spot and this game helped me cope. 
> 
> I didn’t think drawing the master sword looked very benign, even if you were prepared for it. 
> 
> I have had this scene in my head a while and I finally wrote it down and then added almost 4700 words around it, and I’m not sure where it’s going or if it will go anywhere but it might...and I wanted to release it.


End file.
